ITCM 28 - Saber
Inside the Competitor's Mind 28 - Saber I had heard a lot about Saber before I ever met him. Both ¢hrome and pophigh only had good things to say about him. Saber was a mostly f2p player who managed to stay in the top 50. Then I found out that he was going to be a judge at The Garden’s Best Coser of the Year competition and was really excited then. This was one of the biggest cosplay competitions in Hanoi, Vietnam. Cosplay is a combination of the words costume play. It is a performance art in which participants called cosplayers (and sometimes coser) wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject and it is not unusual to see genders switched. The manga and anime world is a hugely popular subject for cosplayers. Since he was judging, I had time to walk around and gawk at everyone in their costumes. All the costumes and props I saw were exquisitely made. It was truly a feast for the eyes. “Darynn,” I turned when I heard my name, and couldn’t help but grin. Saber was also in costume, and he looked gorgeous as Kaito in his female disguise. More gorgeous than me, dammit. “I’m so jealous,” I told him. He laughed, “Don’t be.” I cringed a little when he gave me the critical once over. Then I became wary at the mischief in his smile. “¢hrome likes what he sees, that’s all that matters,” his eyes sparkled with that same mischief. I rolled my eyes and ignored him. “Come on. I scouted out a place where we can talk for a while.” When we finally got settled, he started to tell me about his game, “I am not what you’d call a pure f2p player, because I bought about $200 worth of sigils early on. But I was very unlucky with the pacts. Other than a 5* Wynde, I did not get anything worth talking about from the pacts. So I spent my sigils on running events. I’m proud of the fact that I can usually beat insane using mostly 4* commanders.” He paused to think about it, “Maybe it’s because I am a number cruncher, but I can usually win with a very small margin, though I take longer than a top tier guy would. I still end up at top 20 to top 50.” He grinned again. I was incredibly charmed by that grin. It was sweet, yet mischievous. He moved on to the next topic. “I am 30 years old. Vietnamese, of course. I used to play Fantastica and BB1 on the phone, and some PS games. Now I play brave frontier, bb2 and Battle for Throne card game. So far BB2 is quite easy to play, rather like playing a puzzle. The commanders are quite well made, though some are a bit too imbalanced but I guess that is how DeNA makes money,” he shook his head and shrugged it off. “The aspect I don’t like about bb2 probably is that it is a huge grind fest. There isn’t much variant to speak of, really. Sure, they can argue that the enemy moves differently each time, but it is still same old, same old, once you’ve figured out what to use, once you’ve figured out which unit can survive the hits and dish out just enough to win. We need more diversity.” “Right now, I am with Legion of Doom. I know pop, ¢hrome, and Entus from bb1 and brave frontier. It’s lots of fun chatting about the game and other things.” He grinned at me with a sly wink. Yes, I had become a little more familiar with those “other things” now that Mizy was also with LoD. I rolled my eyes again. He laughed before continuing, “On the matter of forum mods, well, I don’t like them. So I rarely post on the forum. I feel like they act like kids who have some power and they’re trying to enforce their ideas on others without much thought,” he shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. Very little seemed to faze him. “Regarding climbing the ranks, this game basically boils down to throwing money for some decent commanders so that you can beat insane mode. If you are smart, you can spend less on the commanders, then just grind and grind and grind,” he winked, knowing that I’d heard this refrain before. “In order to be able to keep up with the game without spending much, you have to be very persistent and make the best use of what they offer as rewards or for capture and prepare to work for them so that you can beat the event without pulling more pact.” Then he looked mournfully at me, “This might not work for PvP though. But I’ll continue to try.” “I have nothing but admiration for Beau. He has ultra bad luck with the pacts but he still toughs it out. He’s still one of the best players and he continues to charge forward. And Entus, he’s a hard core player, yet he spends a lot of time helping others with guides and such to help the players with weaker commanders to beat insane mode. Amazing men, both of them.” We chatted a little more, about costumes, about some of the topics in chat, when I whipped around. “What’s wrong?” Saber asked curiously. “I just thought I heard someone,” I told him, with a shiver, “I’ve felt like I was being followed for a little while now. It sounded like someone was saying ‘precioussss’, or something with a long sibilant s. I can’t ever turn quick enough to catch whoever it is though.” “Tell ¢hrome,” Saber commanded, “He’ll take care of whoever it is.” “You’re right,” I was somehow comforted by that thought, “I’ll tell him.” And with that, I hugged Saber and we went our separate ways. Category:Mizy Category:Itcm Category:ITCM